Infuriating Corruption

By

Hugo Restall

Updated Jan. 23, 2002 12:01 a.m. ET

It's common knowledge that the managers of China's state banks are civil servants and get paid miserable salaries. Yet Wang Xuebing, the former head of the Bank of China, impressed Western counterparts with his well-tailored clothes, his refined taste in Cuban cigars and French wine, his impressive golf handicap. Now we learn he's under investigation for corruption. And American investment bankers profess to be shocked that such an intelligent guy--he speaks fluent English!--could have been tainted.